Great Warrior: Louis Cook of the Mohawk/Oneida

Contrary to what our history books teach, the officer corps of the Continental Army wasn't all white.  There were people of color who took the lead in the American Revolution.  They were few, played relatively minor roles, but they were there.  One such as Louis Cook of the Mohawk and Oneida, the Native with the highest-ranking commission in the army, as well as the only known person of Black ancestry to receive a commission in the Continental Army.

No one knows when Louis was born, but we do know where.  He was born in Quebec to a Black father and an Abenaki mother.  In 1745, his family was taken captive in a French raid.  A French officer wanted to take the little boy as a slave but a Mohawk warrior stopped him.  In gratitude, his mother took her son and followed the Mohawks back to their village of Caughnawaga, in New York.  There, Louis was adopted by a Mohawk family and raised within the tribe.  He was given the name of Akiatonharonkwen, which means "one who stands out from the group", a quality he would be known for throughout his life.  He received some education from Jesuit missionaries, being able to read, write and speak French.  He later picked up English.

He served along with other Mohawk warriors in the French and Indian War, fighting against the British.  A friend and early biographer who knew him well stated that he was present during Braddock's ill-fated retreat.  Later, he served under General Montcalm at the Battle of Fort Otswego and was wounded during a skirmish with Rogers' Rangers near for Ticonderoga.  It was at this battle, when Ticonderoga was still known by its French name, Carillon, that he was wounded while exercising his first command.  He also led his men at the Battle of St. Foy in 1760.  The French were ultimately defeated and the British took over the area of Caughnawaga.  When Louis returned home and married, he took his new bride to the Mohawk village of Akwesasne, a village on the St. Lawrence River in what was then Quebec, because he did not want to live under British control.

The American Revolution followed the Seven Years War more than a decade later.  The majority of the Mohawk followed Joseph Brant's lead in choosing to ally with the British.  Cook did not, earning Brant's enmity for life.  He, along with members of the Tuscarora and Oneida tribes, allied with the Americans.  He served with Benedict Arnold's failed expedition to conquer Quebec and was present at the death of General Richard Montgomery during the siege of the city.  His leadership abilities were already being noticed and his White comrades nicknamed him Colonel Louis.  Later, Cook served at the Battle of Oriskany, where he led Oneida warriors under the command of General Robert van Rensselear.  Following the Battle of Klock's Field, when Cook led his men into a swollen river to pursue fleeing warriors under the command of Sir William Johnson's son John, while his White compatriots hung back, he turned on Rensselear, sword drown, and called him a coward and a Tory (British sympathizer).  Rensselear's reaction isn't recorded. 

He later joined Washington at Valley Forge.  What part he played in the Oneida transport of supplies and the links with John Shenandoah is unknown.  A man of many talents, he once entertained a company of officers by singing in French.  In 1779, Washington awarded him a Lieutenant-Colonel's commission in the Continental Army.  He was at the head of his warriors during one of the last battles of the Revolutionary War, in 1781, the Battle of Johnstown. 

After the War, Louis returned home to Sterling, New York, where he became a trusted advisor to the Oneida.  His first wife had died, so he remarried again, eventually becoming father to several children.   He convinced the Oneida to lease some of their lands to a local landowner in an effort to make an income stream from the lease.  However, the Americans demanded heavy land cessions from the Iroquois tribes, regardless of where they'd served during the war.  This land was ultimately lost.  Cook petitioned Governor Clinton for compensation to the Oneida for the lost land, but the return was minimal.  As talented as he'd been in war, Colonel Louis would find his limits as a land negotiator.  Nevertheless, he was chosen by the Seven Nations of Canada, which included the Akwesasne and Kahnawake Mohawk, to represent them in land negotiations with New York State.  There, he contested land sales by the people of Grand River and Tyendeniga, two Mohawk bands led by Joseph Brant.  New York seized the land and the animosity deepened between Cook and Brant. 

Cook settled at Akwesasne and became an influential leader.  He believed that the St. Regis Mohawks and the Seven Nations of Canada (more on them later), should remain neutral in the War of 1812, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, for the most part.  United States troops who had no idea who he was detained him at Fort Niagara, but he produced his officer's commission and letters attesting to his service from George Washington and other officers, and he was released.  Though too elderly to fight, he followed the American army into Canada and died after suffering a fall from his horse in October, 1814 at the Battle of Lundy's Lane, where Brant's son and adopted nephew commanded Mohawk warriors on the British side.  He was given a full military funeral and buried near Buffalo, New York.